june's birth story, 5.22.13

at 11:50 pm on tuesday night we got a call from the hospital asking if we were ready to come into the hospital for our scheduled induction. we knew that we would be getting a call sometime that wednesday may 22, but thought we would be anxiously waiting all day wednesday for that phone call. 

but we jumped on it, and were at the hospital within an hour. 

before starting me on pitocin they needed to make sure that my body was ready and somewhat dilated. 

to our surprise, i was dilated to a 3, and quickly started on pitocin, and contractions quickly began.

ouch!

i was unsure about an epidural. i didn't want to be 100% decided and set on something, because i knew that labor can be very unpredictable and if i decided to get an epidural- i didn't want to be disappointed in myself. i just wanted to make the decision as it presented itself on how i felt. i knew labor would be painful and i didn't know what kind of pain to expect with my additional kidney pain. 

as my contractions got more and more intense, i noticed that the dominate pain was felt in my right kidney. with every contraction my kidney hurt worse. so we decided to get the epidural. at this point we were dilated to a 4.

however, i do a poor job of expressing my pain levels and the nurse did not believe me that i was in enough pain to get an epidural. well she was wrong. i was in PAIN!

she told me that the anesthesiologist was going into a c-section and i would get the epidural right after... in 2 hours! once we made the decision to get the epidural we were a little bit ansy! 

as we waited in our room, the nurse manager came in to introduce herself. she asked how we were doing and could tell that i was in a lot of pain. she asked if we knew about the epidural and we told her that we did and that we were waiting for the anesthesiologist to finish with a c-section. she said that he could easily come in before the c-section if we wanted him to.

two seconds later our nurse came in and said that the epidural was on its way! we told her how the nurse manager came in and she said, "yeah, that was my boss..." oops- obviously we got you in trouble! and i don't even feel sorry about it! our bully of a nurse shift ended and we said sianara, and welcomed our new nurse with happy smiles!

before the epidural the doctor came in, checked my dilation, which was now a 5.5, and broke my water, that was a very weird hot tub feeling gush of water! i cannot imagine being at a restaurant or any public place for that matter and having my water break! i cannot, cannot, cannot!

after this, the anesthesiologist came in and sweet relief was brought into my life! so was a lot of tape on my back, and sort of all in my hair, as well as a catheter for my hoo-ha! {am i being too descriptive?}. the epidural was given at 8:00 am, meaning that i literally had not slept ALL NIGHT LONG.

*side note* i have visited many people in the hospital with new babies, and never really believed that they couldn't get up and walk due to an epidural. i remember saying to my friend, can't you just hold onto things...

well, i soon realized that i would not be moving from that bed anytime soon. your legs are truly like a heavy jelly log. you can hardly move your legs. they just flop about.

as labor pains continued, which i won't go into detail about those, cause they are not just a hurting tummy... if you are pregnant, i would highly recommend looking into labor and the different pains/urges felt so that you are not caught off guard. lets just say i was convinced that i could get up and go to the bathroom... i asked probably a dozen times. no one would listen to me. it was like i was being funny and joking.

and then i started to feel a different pain... jeff and my mom had gone to grab some lunch, while i was left to snooze. no i did not sleep at all. when they came back i told them how i was seriously feeling like she was trying to come out of me with every contraction. when the nurse came in, she assured me that this was not the case, but she would check me just to reassure me. when she checked, i was dilated to a 10, and the baby's head was visible and it was time to push.

as they rushed the doctor in and got everything ready for the baby's arrival i was trying to wrap my head around a baby coming. it was not working. i was sort of just like, "oh, ok... let's push." not really registering anything. 

as jeff got on my right side and held my jelly-flop legs, which he was not prepared for, cause it flopped right out of his hands. i began to push. i pushed 3 times and was told that i could just giggle this baby out. with one last push- she was out, crying and all! she was handed right to me, and the water works began on everyone's end. 

i have never experienced something so incredible in all my life. the stories you hear and the movies you see do not even come close to the experience that we had. it was such a quiet and intimate time with such a small group of people. there is no screaming or yelling, you aren't yelling hateful things to your husband or ordering the doctor around. it is so calm and peaceful and as cheeser as it sounds, it really is a little bit of heaven. to see this new life take form and all of the sudden have this surge of emotion and love for this tiny little thing that you never imagined you could feel for something. it is indescribable, and so personal that no one's story is the same. even as i am writing this, it brings tears to my eyes to think of our sweet baby june in our lives!